GOP presidential hopeful, Marco Rubio, demanded the IRS Commissioner resign in a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew.
Dear Secretary Lew:
Recent revelations about the Internal Revenue Service’s selective and deliberate targeting of conservative organizations are outrageous and seriously concerning. This years-long abuse of government power is an assault on the free speech rights of all Americans. This direct assault on our Constitution further justifies the American people’s distrust in government and its ability to properly implement our laws.
The American people deserve answers about how such seemingly unconstitutional and potentially criminal behavior could occur, and who else was aware of it throughout the Administration. It is imperative that you, your predecessor, and other past and present high-ranking officials at the Department of Treasury and IRS immediately testify before Congress.
The public expects your complete cooperation with both congressional investigations and potential criminal inquiries. If investigations reveal that bureaucrats or political appointees engaged in unconstitutional or criminal targeting of conservative taxpayers, they must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. At a bare minimum, those involved with this deeply offensive use of government power have committed a violation of the public trust that has already had a profoundly chilling effect on free speech. Such behavior cannot be excused with a simple apology.
Furthermore, it is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership. Therefore, I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effectively immediately. No government agency that has behaved in such a manner can possibly instill any faith and respect from the American public.
Sincerely,
Marco Rubio
OOOOPPPPPs! Senator Rubio, there is no IRS Commissioner. The last IRS commissioner, Douglas Shulman, was appointed by George W. Bush in March of 2008 and resigned in November 2012.. Nice try, no banana. Do you think this was the fault of George W. Bush? Shall we call him back and demand an explanation? Stop trying to blame Mr. Bush.
It sounds like politics as usual to me. Lots of outrage and political grand-standing. The sharks circling because they smell blood.
Is Rubio really the GOP’s answer for 2016? Keep trying guys, its got to get better than this.
Rubio’s letter was stupid.
But there is an ongoing problem with the IRS. And SOMEONE authorized these actions.
Do you think perhaps part of the problem exists because things changed so much post Citizens United? Perhaps we need to take a look at what is now allowable and what is not so we are all on the same sheet of music.
testing … excuse this … my comments don’t seem to go through from this computer …
Wow, I guess the nproblem is solved. Sorry about that.
Well, i wanted to say – Cargo, why do you think the letter’s stupid? It seems to me that the IRS Commssioner’s resignation is called for. Given that a whole IRS office was out of control.
To me this is a logical outgrowth of the way we let the two parties dominate our existence. This time though, they got sloppy and violated the law.
“And the IRS Commissioner is…….????”
Steven T. Miller, Commissoner of IRS (Acting)
Seems to me this story has big legs, and the President (the one who says he first heard about this story on TV) has become a lame duck, if he wasn’t already. I can live with that … he seems to have no real national agenda. The immigration reform stuff I believe is mostly political in nature – he doesn’t particularly want it to happen, but wants the GOP to take a hit with Hispanic voters over it.
@Moon-howler
These problems happened under other presidents too. Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Clinton….
When you have a hammer…….
The solution is to get rid of this idiotic progressive tax with all these loopholes and regulations.
Make it a flat tax, no loopholes. Everyone pays. Or better…a national sales tax.
Again, Steve Thomas hits the nail on the head. There clearly is somebody running the IRS. Call him the Commissioner, Acting Commissioner, Head Bozo (which seems to be the most accurate so far) whatever. The guy running the IRS needs to get the sack along with a large swath of the management that approved or allowed this to happen. Then you can start looking at who needs to be prosecuted.
The punishment has to be severe enough that it will stick in the IRS’s collective memory for a long time.
Disallowing a group’s non profit status is hardly the equivalent of violating one’s freedom of speech.
The commissioner who was in charge during these actions resigned in November!
Moon,
YOu hit the nail on the head, the ramifications of Citizens United is coming to pass. The idea that non profits can be controlled is ridiculous now. Make them all tax exempt and be done.
But making approval contingent upon asking questions that may be illegal to ask, is a violation of one’s freedom of speech. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324716/Document-IRS-ordered-conservative-educational-group-turn-list-high-school-college-students-trained.html
And the federal law these questions may have violated is: Family Educational Rights Protection Act (FERPA). You might know of this law. It’s the one that protects the President’s transcripts and such from release from his schools…without his permission.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
So, are you trying to say that the person at the top, appointed by a Republican President, is responsible, and because he was appointed by a Republican President, the actions by the IRS couldn’t possibly have been partisan?
Just trying to figure out what your point is.
Maybe this is off topic but shouldn’t the IRS be closely scrutinizing the taxexempt applications of groups whose avowed policy is to pay no more taxes;I.e., the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party? The various TEA Party affiliates who want a tax exempt status are the same ones supporting certain candidates, a no-no for tax exempt groups. PLUS applications from such groups doubled or maybe tripled. I say the IRS is doing the right thing. In the meantime, Repiblicans keep throwing all kinds of crap at the Democratic Party hoping some will stick.
@George S. Harris
“The various TEA Party affiliates who want a tax exempt status are the same ones supporting certain candidates, a no-no for tax exempt groups.”
Political activity by not-for-profits is permitted under section 501(c)(4), as long the majority of the revenues received and distributed are not for political activity. I think this is where the confusion lies. Charitable organizations, 501(c)(3) where donations to the group are tax-deductable by the donor, have higher restrictions on political speech. Churches, for example, risk their tax-exempt status if they campaign for a specific candidate.
Um no Steve, I am trying to tell you that the person IN CHARGE during these targeted investigations is already gone.
George, read this op-ed, I thought it was very interesting!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-s-goodman/irs-tea-party_b_3280063.html
President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew requested and accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven Miller, following the agency’s admission that agents improperly singled out conservative non-profits for additional reviews during the 2012 election.
“I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS,” Obama said at the White House. “Given the power that it has, and the reach that it has in all of our lives. And as I said earlier, it should not matter what political stripe you’re from, the fact of the matter is that the IRS has to operate with absolute integrity.”
————————————————————–
Apparently it wasn’t just the old IRS boss.
@Steve Thomas
Who is to say what majority is?
What the hell is the money for? The not-for-profit is sort of secondary.
I don’t claim to have kept up with all the twists and turns since Citizens United was decided. I stand by my assertion that Citizens United was one of the most dangerously decided cases in the past 100 years.
Before Citizens United, things were more clearly cut. There was none of this social welfare bull. It was all about participation in elections and lobbying.
I think the IRS ought to give everyone applying the same scrutiny. As much flim flamming as goes on today, they should look long and hard.
So Miller was the sacrificial lamb. Are we surprised? I guess it all happened after the Bush guy left. Yea that’s the ticket.
Politics as usual. Let’s see what else can be dug up.
@Furby McPhee
Miller’s title was deputy commissioner. When calling for someone’s head, one should be specific. He was not in the position and I doubt very seriously if he received the pay that Shulman had been paid.
Otherwise people like me sit around and make fun of them.
sounds like everyone should just go 501(c)(4) since the new citizen united regs are so vague and ambiguous!
Let’s start our own!!!
Oh yes, let’s.
We already know that they leaked confidential information to Obama campaign appendages, which is illegal.
So yes, let’s play. Let’s go find the first pasty-faced bureaucrat at the IRS that wants to take an immunity deal as opposed to going to prison. What a sweet, sweet song they’re going to sing. And when the birds start to sing, it’s never just one.
As long as the digging is on both sides, have at it.
Moon,
Do you recall the investigation by the Republicans into the leaking of Valerie Plame as a cover CIA operative?
NO. I must have blinked. All I remember has her being dismissed as a “secretarial type” when in fact, she was a covert operative. @ Elena
This doesn’t have to be a partisan issue. No one (at least no one outside the IRS) thinks that it is acceptable that tax exemptions be granted or denied based on some political litmus test. The President has said that if the allegations are true, the conduct of the IRS is outrageous. At the same time, 501(c) status gradations are difficult to administer and enforce, and no one thinks people ought to be getting an exemption if they don’t qualify. So take a broom to the bureaucrats who used selective criteria, make sure that the criteria that are used are objective and would equally apply to any group, and go forward from there.
“selective” probably would have been better put as “arbitrary”.
ironic how the groups that were targeted were profiled, yet the same groups want others profiled for different reasons, and see no harm in profiling at all.
Pat,
I woke up this morning, ruminating on that exact same premise. Yes, those groups immediately defended Zimmerman who shot that kid carrying skittles. Wasn’t that profiling? Young black teenager, uknown to you, must be up to no good. Ooooh, how about Hispanics, aren’t they are all “illegals”? Not one person who supports the TEA party in PWC made a peep when “not speaking English” could be used as a reason to prove your status. Oh, don’t even get me started on Muslims. Profiling is good only when it supports your belief system.
Scout,
I concur wholeheartedly. Make sure the process is fair and that proper guidelines are in place from this point on.
Here is the reality, there was a preponderance of TEA party like applications. Turn this around on a different election and new rules due to Citizen United and it could have easily been liberal groups. All I can say is thank goodness it was a Republican appointee during these “enhanced” investigations.
Wow! I can’t believe you guys are actually trying to defend the IRS targeting people based on their political beliefs. This isn’t even a Democrat or Republican issue. You guys are to the left of Obama and almost every Democrat in Congress on this.
It’s sad that you can’t see the danger in the IRS being used for political purposes. Actually, it looks like you can see the danger, but you just don’t care because it’s being used against the people you hate. Even the thought that this weapon (a political IRS) will be turned against your side in the future doesn’t seem to faze you at least today because “the tea party shouldn’t be in government” That’s really sad.
In a democracy we are suppose to disagree with people but accept that they have as much right to advocate their beliefs as we do ours. But apparently people in the tea party don’t get that right.
Sidebar: there was a very long investigation on the CIA Valerie Plame leak. Led (as it should be) by an independent special prosecutor. Google says the investigator was Pat Fitzgerald. Why would you want the Republicans in Congress to do the investigation instead of an special prosecutor?
This is exactly what should happen with the IRS scandal. The White House shouldn’t be investigating it and Congress shouldn’t be investigating it. An independent special prosecutor should be.
McFurby, do you have a reading problem? No one on this blog has said what you are accusing them of.
I am not so sure what the IRS agents did. There is too much political grand-standing to cut through all the crap. The only thing I have heard here is people wanting uniform tax code rules to apply to everyone equally.
However, using the IRS as a political tool is certainly not a new idea nor a novel concept.
Just out of curiosity, why would career govt. employees have an ax to grind on this matter?
Just as a suggestion, tone down the agression a few notches.
I do…and I am sure that James “Scooter” Libby (nailed for the coverup) and Richard Armitage (the actual leaker to Bob Novak, who was never prosecuted, even though it was known to the independent counsel from the beginning, who the leaker was) do as well.
Whether or not Plame was a “covert operative” is debatable, based on the criteria used. Her employment by the CIA did not automatically confer “covert status”, but there were times where she traveled using an official cover, which would make her covert…during these specific periods.
But really “what difference does it make, at this point?”
It probably matters a lot to Valerie Plame. She said herself what her job entailed. Like I am supposed to believe Dick Cheney? Bwaaahahahahahaha.
She should not have been outed. Pure politics at its nastiest.
I am sure Scooter Libby isn’t over having to be the fall guy either.
@Moon-howler
“Just out of curiosity, why would career govt. employees have an ax to grind on this matter?”
And that’s a great question, which will be answered when those in the Exempt Division who subjected the conservative applications to unreasonable levels of scruitny and made onerous requests for information, are sworn and testify before congress. I am confident that the answer to this question will be quite ugly.
What we do know is that the head of this division, Lois G. Lerner was an Obama supporter. All you have to do is follow the money. We also know that she gave speedy approval to Obama’s brother’s organization, during the same period. We also know that her husband’s law firm hosted a campaign fundraising event for Obama. We also know that IRS employees donated overwhelmingly to Obama’s campaign, when compared to Romney’s. We also know that the IRS is one of the government agencies that stands to gain the most funding and power with the implementation of Obamacare, and we also know that many of the groups targeted by these illegal actions were formed by citizens wishing to oppose Obamacare.
This is getting uglier and stinkier by the day, especially when one considers the fact that the IRS will be enforcing Obamacare, and..will have access to everyone’s electronic health record.
This is getting way too tin foil hattish for me.
You say no one on this blog has said what I am accusing them of?
1. George Harris in post #14 said “Maybe this is off topic but shouldn’t the IRS be closely scrutinizing the taxexempt applications of groups whose avowed policy is to pay no more taxes;I.e., the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party? … I say the IRS is doing the right thing. ”
2. Moonhowler said in the post about Manassas City “TEA Party politics has no place in running government.”
That sure sounds like some of the people here see the tea party as unworthy of the same basic protections that everybody should be entitled do. Or did I miss the posts saying that Occupy Wall Street politics have no place in running government and that the IRS should be especially targeting them?
If you are unsure what the bare minimum of the abuses at the IRS are, read the report the IRS released yesterday. That’s at what they are confessing to. We’ll wait and see what else happened.
Career government employees have political axes to grind just like everybody else. A large percentage of them support Obama, so it’s pretty easy to see how some of them could cross the line and abuse their position to ‘help the cause’.
And, for the latest in “Scandal-o-rama”, a congressman is claiming that the DOJ wire-tapped the Congressional cloakroom: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/congressman-justice-dept-wiretapped-house-representatives-cloak-room_724606.html
I mean this with all of the honesty and sincerity in my being: I pray this is not true. In as much as I believe this Administration needs to be shown for what I believe it is, I don’t want to see two branches of the government in all-out war.
Oh, and this is illegal too: http://voices.yahoo.com/how-irs-launders-veterans-disability-checks-12136745.html
I do not believe that is true. They will have access to insurance eligibility, not your medical record.
@Moon-howler
I agree, regarding the outting of Plame. Whether or not the “outting” constituted placing her life in danger, it did limit her future ability to do a job that she was being paid to do.
Politically motivated? I’d also agree that it was, but was the culprit Dick Cheney? No. It was Richard Armitage, and Fitzgerald, the prosecuter, knew this from the start. Armitage claims that he inadvertantly leaked it, and Bob Woodward, to whom the information was leaked, confirmed that the leak appeared to have been accidental, as an aside to another conversation they were having. So, the accusation that Plame was outted as “payback” for the (self-admitted) falsified report that her husband wrote (at the suggestion of Plame herself), didn’t hold up to Fitzgerald’s aggressive investigation. Scooter ended up as the “fall-guy” because he was dumb. Plame had already been outted by Armitage to Woodward. Libby knew of this, when he too discussed Plame with reporter Judith Miller. Since Plame’s cover had already been blown by Armitage, Libby didn’t commit a crime by repeating what was public knowledge. Where he wen’t wrong was lying to the investagation, when he really had no reason to. This is what he was (rightly) punished for. And let the record show that although he could have pardoned Libby (as Clinton pardoned several crooks, prior to leaving office), GW chose to issue clemency. Libby served jailtime, and was disbarred, because the conviction was left to stand.
But really, what does this have to do with Fast & Furious, Benghazi, the AP and the IRS scandals? Is every investigation of wrong-doing politically motivated? Don’t the families of Brian Terry, Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods deserve the truth? Shouldn’t Freedom of the Press be respected? Shouldn’t the tax law be equally applied and not used as a political bludgeon to intimidate those who disagree with the government?
I remember how the left howled over being restricted to “free speech zones” while protesting at public events attended by the President, even though in the wake of 9/11, security concerns were valid and yet, rights to protest were accomodated. I remember how he was compared to “Adolph and the Nazi’s”. I remember Hillary Clinton shouting how she was sick and tired of being called “unpatriotic” (by conservative media, not the administration) for criticizing the administration. What the IRS admitted doing goes WAY beyond putting protestors in “free speech zones”, IMHO, and we don’t even know the whole of it yet.
Apparently the left acting stupid isn’t going to gedt the desired reaction out of me. That umbrella is just too big of a tent.
I don’t remember Hillary shouting. Where was she when she shouted? I thought the conservative media was as stupid as those crying over the security zones.
Freedom of the press is not unlimited, especially when it comes to matters of national security.
There have been five different hearings on Benghazi. Let’s leave the dead out of it. Don’t their families want the truth? I expect all sorts of people still want the truth about why their loved ones were in Iraq. I believe that was Cindy Sheehan’s point.
Right now I believe you are trying to politicize their deaths. This situation was politicized from the beginning, starting with Romney shooting off his mouth in the middle of a crisis. That was totally unacceptable.
Along with the close scrutiny, I sure hope that Congress is willing to pony up and provide the funding for increased security. The pissing and moaning over inadequate security needs to go hand and hand with providing the money by those whose authority it is to provide.
Follow the money. Isn’t that what W. Mark Felt, Deputy Director of the FBI (AKA Deep Throat) told Woodward and Bernstein regarding Watergate? Where did the money lead?
yea but thats them. I really don’t do tin foil hat well.
And what’s to stop them from accessing them, considering that ? The law? The law hasn’t stopped the IRS from doing what it’s doing right now. The Health Insurance Patient Portibility Act (HIPPA) certainly didn’t prevent the IRS from posessing medical information, that was later stolen: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/irs-face-lawsuit-over-theft-60-million-patient-health-records
“The Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges.
According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents. The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data.
“This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by several Internal Revenue Service agents,” the complaint reads. “No search warrant authorized the seizure of these records; no subpoena authorized the seizure of these records; none of the 10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known criminal or civil investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to the IRS search. IT personnel at the scene, a HIPPA facility warning on the building and the IT portion of the searched premises, and the company executives each warned the IRS agents of these privileged records,” it continued.
According to the case, the IRS agents had a search warrant for financial data pertaining to a former employee of the John Doe company, however, “it did not authorize any seizure of any healthcare or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter,” the complaint read. “
Here is the reality. We don’t know ALL the facts. How many “Liberal” groups filed for tax exempt status? Was it 50? Was it more, less? Of those 50, how many were required to jump through hoops, we don’t know. We know out of the 100% that were required to prove “social whatever vague criteria”, 25% were TEA party, Patriot, Hate Obama(care), etc.
Was the IRS stupid to not have guidelines to avoid impropriety, hell yes, no one approves of targeting any group. But IF that group is in the majority applying for this new Citizens United blather of morphing social good and politics, then why WOULDN”T they have more investigations, just by the sheer mass of applications.
Except that liberal groups were not exposed to the same amount of scrutiny, including improper demands for donor lists, etc.
Funny how all the wrong doing and coverups benefited only one party, especially during an election year. Now that the press has been “attacked,” maybe they’ll start doing their jobs.
According to whom? @ cargo
Maybe they just didn’t complain en mass.
There is a simple solution to all of this.
Repeal the 16th Amendment. Or amend it to remove income tax and make it a national sales tax. Destroy the intrusive power of the IRS completely.
Tell me that closer to April 15th and I might agree.
@Steve Thomas
Steve – that case has nothing to do with Obamacare.
Ok Pat, if you think that the IRS can’t access your electronic health record, when I have demonstrated that they can and will, regardless of the law, then go right ahead and trust that the IRS won’t do this. Me, I try not to pick up snakes, because I know they are snakes… The fact that the IRS will hire 1000 new agents to handle Obamacare, equals 1000 more snakes.
They have always had limited access to health cre information. Ever had enough medical bills for a tax =write off?
I guess life, even at its most simplistic foundation, still boils down to, you are judged by the company you keep. If you associate with a group that specifically talks about the evil of taxes, well, then, you might end up getting additional scrutiny. Kind of like if you had a license plate that read “luv2speed”! You might just get more attention from police, or how about “I’mDWI”.
How does Massachusetts ensure Romneycare?
The house is trying to cut the food assistance program. Kids and old folks can start feeling the pain. They are also going for the 38th time to vote to get rid of Obamacare. Geez
So, if you associate with a group that specifically talks about the need to “level the playing field by making the rich pay more” that would warrant additional attention if a conservative is in charge? How about asking people to identify their religous affiliation on their taxes, if they want to claim their tithes and offerrings as charitible donations? I guess it would make it easier for the IRS to track who is giving the money to whom, and identify any “problematic” churches that oppose certain government policies as a matter of faith. Could really crack down on those “pro-life” and “pro-traditional marriage” churches. And when a “pro-business Republican” is in the whitehouse, the IRS could start targeting Union members, and later, when the office changes hands, and a “pro-labor Democrat” is in there, they can focus on people living in right-to-work states, and even better, specific companies that the NLRB is supervising the employee votes on unionizing.
If the IRS runs ObamaCare…I see this: “Well, Mr. Smith…I see you need that appendix removed. Did you pay your union du…I mean, back taxes?”
That’s crazy talk. Can’t happen here. Nope. Nope. Nope. Your just being paranoid. Go clean your guns, all 5 of them, in-case we take…er…I mean…in case you need them.
HOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWL!!!!!!!!!
Raise your hand if you heard the IRS talking on your filling radio in your mouth…….
My first point acutally his how effed up citizens united has become on our political process. Personally, the govt ought to just stop pretending like there is campaign finance laws and just let it be a free for all because that is what is has become.
what TEA party or like group does NOT fall into this category! What about moveon.org, or a myriad of other liberal groups? Did they even TRY to get tax exempt status under “social welfare” 501c4 status?
Promoting social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, if an organization is organized exclusively to promote social welfare, it may still obtain exemption even if it participates legally in some political activity on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office. Political activities may not be the organization’s primary activities, however.
http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Other-Non-Profits/Political-Activity-and-Social-Welfare
Heh…found the person in charge of the inappropriate IRS actions.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/irs-official-in-charge-during-tea-party-targeting-now-runs-health-care-office/
Of course this is where they would put that person.
@Cargosquid
Let me restate that from the above.
Found the person in charge DURING the inappropriate IRS actions.
Funny that the Bush guy was at the top during this entire time period.
I am speechless that his name never comes up.